Shukria's contribution to preventing the spread of COVID-19

The threats of coronavirus are spreading every day in Afghanistan and at the same time, it needs a joint effort to act against this epidemic. Shukria, 24 years old, is a resident of Nakarabad village in Shibirghan center of Jawzjan province. She is an active woman in the village and she is also the deputy of the Community Development Council in her village and besides that, she is a talented tailor.

After attending the awareness-raising session by Citizens’ Charter Programme, she understood the high risk of COVID-19 and started sewing masks and distributing them to the people who were not economically privileged in her village.

She says: “I started sewing masks from my own expenses for poor and needy people. Coronavirus is a serious threat and it can spread very fast. Based on the advice of doctors, to prevent this disease, people should use masks.”

She also added: “Most of the people don’t have money to buy masks or they can’t find it in the market. Therefore, I started sewing masks. I sew 60 per day and I have produced around 1000 and distributed them to the people.”

After receiving awareness through the Citizens’ Charter Programme which is being implemented by the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, she started awareness-raising at home. Her husband is now also interested to help his wife in the distribution of masks in the village.

The implementation of the Citizens’ Charter Programme is started in 2017 by the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan in Jawzjan province and Nakarabad CDC is established in 2018. This Council has 30 members and 15 of them are women. Shukria works as deputy of the mentioned council.

Since the outbreak of coronavirus in Fayezabad district and Shibirghan city, around 3000 individuals benefited from the awareness-raising sessions and out of which 50 percent of them were women.